1. Field of the Invention
The present invention concerns a contact piece of the female type usable in a connector, for example a connector answering the MIL norm or any other specification, or for any other application, such as for example in an integrated circuit base, or destined to be placed on a printed circuit board. The invention concerns more particularly the portion of this contact piece destined to accommodate the corresponding element of the male type.
2. Description of the Related Art
Several specifications or norms, notably the MIL norms and in particular the MIL-C 39029 norm, define a certain number of characteristics which this portion of the contact piece must comply with, for example contact resistance, engagement and separation force of the male contact piece, depth of engagement of the male piece before contact is established etc. According to these norms, these various parameters are to be measured both when the pieces are new as well as after multiple uses, and this under very diverse environmental, temperature, humidity and other conditions.
In order to attempt to comply with these requirements, manufacturers have proposed various constructions of this portion of the contact piece.
Several known embodiments of such portions of contact pieces will be described further below, in connection with FIGS. 1A and 1B as well as FIG. 2 ; these embodiments encounter notably the following disadvantages according to the constructions described : need to work the entire contact piece in a costly metallic alloy since it must have excellent electrical conduction properties as well as excellent mechanical properties, notably spring power, need to heat treat at least several portions of the piece in order to give it the necessary mechanical characteristics, need to cover the whole piece, or an important portion thereof, with costly plating, of gold or silver, in order to give it the necessary electrical characteristics, difficulty to comply with certain norm requirements, notably MIL norms, lack of any possibility of interchanging the different elements of the contact piece, etc.